Why You Shouldn’t Trust Twitter About Trump
President Trump has made 10,000 false or misleading statements since taking office, according to the Washington Post .
With this staggering number in mind, it’s easier than ever to be a little skeptical about some of his “fact” statements. And according to a new study by nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters , he’s not the only one responsible for spreading #fakenews.
Researchers at Media Matters recently viewed more than 2,000 tweets from 32 of the largest media outlets and news outlets during the government’s shutdown and up to its announcement of the country’s emergency in February – a key period in the recent news cycle.
In the end, they found a startling number of media outlets that were unable to challenge Trump’s disinformation on their Twitter accounts.
Why is it so bad? Well, if the media does not correct misleading or completely false statements, then readers tend to view them as facts; and if your aunties’ rantings on Facebook are an indicator, our social media feeds have become the only way millions of people take their news, retweeting “facts” as gospel. Let’s take a look at some of the worst criminals on Twitter:
- The Hill posted 175 tweets that failed to refute Trump’s disinformation, an average of eight times a day. At the time of the study, he had 3.5 million Twitter followers.
- ABC News sent 23 tweets that didn’t fix Trump. He had 14.3 million Twitter followers.
- World News sent out 13 tweets without correcting Trump. He had 1.35 million subscribers.
- 21 tweets were sent out this week promoting Trump’s false or misleading claims. He had 166,000 followers.
- MSNBC posted 11 tweets with no fixes. He had 2.41 million subscribers.
- NBC News posted 13 uncorrected tweets. He had 6.52 million subscribers.
- Politico posted 14 tweets without corrections. He had 3.8 million followers.
Collectively, that’s 270 tweets sent out to millions of people over a period of approximately three weeks. Sites like the Washington Post and NPR, meanwhile, came out on top, challenging Trump’s 89% and 100% errors, respectively (although NPR only posted four tweets regarding Trump’s statements, so that’s a lower number overall).
What to do the next time you see Trump’s “fact” on your feed? Focus on the actions of politicians instead of words, according to Parker Molloy, editor-in-chief of Media Matters. “Politicians say a lot, but what really matters is what they do,” she said in an email. “When Trump announced ahead of the 2018 mid-term results that he and the Republicans in Congress were working to cut taxes by 10% for middle-class Americans, it was clear that this was actually not the case, but you saw all these stories that talked about this as the truth. Congress was not even in session at the time. So focusing on solid actions like signing legislation, issuing decrees or voting can save readers a lot of time and energy. ”
Molloy also recommends taking a second to find at least one or two other reputable sources of evidence before hitting the retweet button. And sometimes it’s as easy as clicking a tweet before a story, giving better insight than 280 characters. Or take a look at PolitiFact or VoteSmart , non-profit, non-partisan sites to help you better understand what information (and politicians) you can trust.